CarBrandLogos archive · Hummer · 1992

HummerHummer H1

The Humvee with leather: a military truck licensed for the school run.

Photo: MercurySable99 · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Hummer history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Hummer H1, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

AM General built the HMMWV for the US Army and had no particular interest in selling it to the public. Television coverage of the 1991 Gulf War changed the calculation, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's persistent lobbying to buy one is usually credited with pushing the company into building a civilian version, which reached the market in 1992.

2006 Hummer H3 H1 and H2 · No machine-readable author provided. Sfoskett~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0

Design and engineering

What arrived was the military vehicle with softer trim and little else compromised. Portal gearboxes at each wheel raised the differentials clear of the ground, giving around sixteen inches of clearance under the axles; the brakes were mounted inboard next to the differentials; a central tyre inflation system let the driver adjust pressures on the move. The price of all this was a transmission tunnel so wide that occupants sit pushed out against the doors, a body over seven feet across, and interior noise that no amount of trim would fix.

Camo Hummer H1 front · BrokenSphere · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

Engines were Detroit Diesel V8s of 6.2 and 6.5 litres, naturally aspirated then turbocharged, with a 5.7 petrol V8 early on and a Duramax turbo-diesel in the final 2006 Alpha. None made the vehicle quick, and fuel consumption was ruinous, but there was almost nothing a stock H1 could not drive over.

Marbella-22 · R-E-AL (talk | contribs | Gallery) (German Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

General Motors bought the Hummer brand name in 1999 while AM General continued to build the H1 at Mishawaka, Indiana. Just 11,818 civilian examples were made before it ended in 2006, killed by emissions rules and its own economics. It remains the only one of the three Hummers that was genuinely the machine it looked like.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

1992–2006

Units built

11,818

Engine

5.7&nbsp

Body

4-door Open Top - HMCO

Technical specification

The Hummer H1, in detail.

Production: 1992–2006 (11,818 produced)
Class: Full-size SUV / Full-size pickup truck
Body style: 4-door Open Top - HMCO ; 4-door SUV - HMCS ; 4-door Hard Top - HMC4 ; 2-door Fleet - KSC2 ; 2-door Pickup - XLC2
Layout: Front-mid engine, four-wheel drive
Engine: 5.7 L L05 V8; 6.2 L Detroit Diesel V8; 6.5 L Detroit Diesel V8; 6.5 L Detroit Diesel V8 (turbo); 6.6 L Duramax Turbo-Diesel V8
Transmission: GM TH400/3L80 3-speed automatic; GM 4L80-E 4-speed automatic; Allison 1000 5-speed automatic
Assembly: United States: Mishawaka, Indiana
Manufacturer: AM General